Yes, the negotiations between Hamilton County and the Bengals are going swimmingly.
They’re going so well that Hamilton County has abruptly fired the lawyer who has handled talks with the local NFL and MLB teams (and other matters) for 28 years.
Via Erin Glynn of the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Hamilton County Commissioner voted unanimously on Thursday to terminate Tom Gabelman and his firm, Frost Brown Todd (yes, that sounds like a very British dessert).
From the termination letter: “The board and the prosecuting attorney agree that services provided by another law firm would be beneficial to the board in representation of the board in matters dealing with the lease agreement with the Cincinnati Bengals, Inc.”
Gabelman said the firing of him and his firm was “completely unexpected.”
It’s a major financial blown for Frost Brown Todd. In 2019, Gabelman estimated that his firms had received $21 million in fees from its work for Hamilton County over the prior two decades.
Actually, the change could help push things forward. Something has kept Hamilton County and the Bengals from reaching agreement on a new long-term lease. And while the two sides recently struck a deal for short-term renovations to Paycor Stadium, June 30 continues to hover over the relationship.
That’s the team’s deadline for exercising an option to extend the current lease. If the Bengals don’t extend the lease, it expires after the 2025 season.
The NFL’s two Sunday afternoon TV packages have long been divided up with Fox primarily getting NFC games and CBS primarily getting AFC games, but in recent years the league has had more flexibility to move games across networks. And Fox hasn’t always been happy with that.
Fox executive Mike Mulvihill told Richard Deitsch of TheAthletic.com that in past years his network has felt it was losing more good NFC games than it was getting back in good AFC games, but that Fox is pleased with how the NFL divvied up the schedule this season.
“We talked a lot with the league about the idea that ‘cross-flex,’ which is the policy by which NFC games can go to CBS and AFC games can go to Fox, needed to be a little bit more balanced,” Mulvihill said. “That cross-flex mechanism was created to help balance the (media) packages, and in the years since then, the AFC has become significantly better than it was when that protocol was agreed upon. They (other outlets) were getting better NFC games than we were getting back from the AFC side. It just became a little bit imbalanced.”
This year, Week 14 Bengals-Bills is a big AFC game with star quarterbacks Josh Allen and Joe Burrow, and likely playoff implications, that the NFL gave to Fox. That’s a game that wouldn’t have gone to Fox under the stricter NFC/AFC split, and it’s the kind of game that makes Fox very pleased with the NFL’s schedule makers.
The 17th weekend of the 2025 season starts with a trio of Christmas games. It continues with a Saturday tripleheader, capped by an exclusive prime-time game on Peacock.
The three games for the Saturday slate will come from a group of five games.
The five games earmarked for the Saturday shift are Seahawks at Panthers, Cardinals at Bengals, Ravens at Packers, Texans at Chargers, and Giants at Raiders.
The best of the bunch, as of May 14, is Ravens at Packers. Texans at Chargers is close behind, since it’s a playoff rematch from 2024.
The other games could become more compelling as the season unfolds. And with five games in play to be dropped into prime time on Saturday night, chances are at least one will involve a pair of teams in playoff contention.
The NFL revealed one of the three Thanksgiving games during their pre-schedule release leaks this week and the other two became official on Wednesday evening.
The Lions will host the Packers in the first game of the annual tripleheader and the Bengals will be in Baltimore to face the Ravens in the nightcap. The Chiefs’ visit to the Cowboys in the late afternoon slot was announced ahead of those games.
Green Bay was a yearly opponent of the Lions on Thanksgiving in the 1950s and 1960s, but they have appeared less frequently in recent decades. They beat the Lions 29-22 in 2023 and beat the Dolphins at home last year, so this will be their third straight appearance on the fourth Thursday of November.
The Bengals have only made one appearance on Thanksgiving and lost to the Jets in 2010. The Ravens are 2-0 on the holiday while the Packers are 16-20-2 and the Lions are 38-45-2.
Bengals defensive end Trey Hendrickson said some things on Tuesday. Things a player rarely ever says publicly.
One comment stands out among the rest. He claims that coach Zac Taylor sent a text explaining that, if Hendrickson doesn’t show up for next month’s mandatory minicamp, he will be fined.
That claim cries out for context. Did Taylor send the message out of the blue? Or was it part of a broader discussion about Hendrickson’s failed effort to get a new contract?
It’s hard to imagine Taylor taking an unprovoked hard line with a key player. It’s easy to envision him eventually reminding Hendrickson about the way the Bengals do business as part of a broader conversation regarding Hendrickson’s options when it comes to getting the contract the front office won’t give him.
Last year, for example, when receiver Ja’Marr Chase showed up for training camp but didn’t practice, they fined him. As we understand it, the team took the position at one point that the fines couldn’t be waived — even though they could have been, since Chase was still operating under his rookie deal. (We don’t specifically know how all of that eventually worked out.)
The fines for skipping mandatory minicamp can be waived, for any player. Maybe Taylor was simply pointing out to Hendrickson that the Bengals won’t do that. That he’ll be fined and the money will be collected.
Regardless, two things seem obvious. One, Hendrickson is upset. Two, the text exchange was something more than Taylor deciding without prompting to remind Hendrickson that if he skips the mandatory minicamp, he will be fined.
If the second assumption is wrong, Hendrickson can publish the text exchange. While that would be an unconventional approach, everything he’s done so far this week has been extremely unconventional.
